Abandon
by BrownEyedRose
Summary: After Journey's End, Rose and the Doctor's new life doesn't fall back into the perfect pattern they hoped. In fact, it's close to the exact opposite.


**A/N: **Rose and the Doctor, whether it be 9, 10, or 10.5 is my absolute OTP. So, I've been wanting to write them for a while. But, for some reason, I found them ridiculously hard to write. I spent a lot of time deciding whether or not to post this, as I don't think it's my best writing. But, it is my, first proper Doctor Who fanfiction.

**I STILL DON'T OWN ANYTHING... THIS IS WHY I WRITE FANFICTION FOLKS! **

**UNRELATED NOTE: **_To people reading my Starship fanfic... I'm so sorry it hasn't been updated in such a long time_. _I'm not going to be able to update it until my school ends for holiday. I can write one shots, but writing a multi-chapter fic takes more writing time than I have. I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry. _

* * *

They fought. A lot.

"If I came back, the other me, if he arrived with his TARDIS and his adventures, you'd go with him." He said, voice dangerously calm, daring her to answer.

She didn't. She just bit her lip, and looked down.

"Answer me, Rose. You'd leave me. You'd go running off with him, leaving me behind."

Rose looked out the window, at her feet, over his head. Anywhere but at him. Suddenly, he grabbed her chin and forced her to look up. "Answer me. Now."

"Yes." She whispered. "He's my Doctor."

The other Doctor, no one's Doctor, let go of her chin, and slammed his hand into the wall. "You'd leave me behind. You'd just let me go."

And, that's when she broke. Eyes flashing, she walked up to him and started to scream. "You, he left me. Twice. Twice! I was stuck here, without him! You filthy hypocrite. Do you know what that did to me? Huh?"

He started to shake his head, realizing too late that he had gone too far with his Rose, she was still too fragile.

She didn't let him talk. "Ask my mum. Ask Pete. They'll tell you. I locked myself in my bedroom. I didn't eat, didn't sleep, didn't talk. The only thing that gave me hope again was that damn dimension cannon. I lived for that thing for three years. Then he abandoned me here again." Her voice had changed from the angry screams to an empty, hollow whisper.

"Rose-" The Doctor started again, but for the second time, she stopped him.

"Go."

The Doctor looked confused. "Where?"

She looked straight at him. "I don't care. Just go."

He stared in amazement at Rose. She showed no signs of any emotion, except exhaustion. "Go." She said again, voice filled with such resounding finality, that he couldn't just leave.

"Rose Tyler-"

"Don't do that again. I told you to go. Go."

There was nothing more to say. The Doctor turned on his heel, and left, shutting the door softly behind him. That's when her bitter, emotionless façade broke. She slid to the floor, whispering, asking herself what she had done.

On the other side of the door, her Doctor closed his eyes, and almost considered going back into their, _her _apartment and just holding her.

He doesn't.

**. . . **

He stayed in a hotel across town, ignoring his work, just wondering where it went wrong. And, leaving her voice messages every night, asking for just one talk.

She stayed in their, _her _apartment, going to work earlier and staying out later every night. And deleting every message she gets from him before listening. She flat out ignored him. Until one night.

It's 1 in the morning, and he's sitting in his hotel room, watching a rerun of a television show that aired 30 years ago. He's about to turn off the TV and go to sleep, hoping that when he wakes up, there will be a message, a text, anything from Rose. But, then, his phone rings. Absent mindedly, he picked it up. And froze at the voice.

"Doctor? Doctor, Doctor, Doctor? Are you there? Doctor?" Her voice was slurred, and almost too happy.

"Rose?" He breathed. Then, her tone registered. "Rose, are you drunk?"

"Me? Drunk? No. Never. Of course not. Maybe." She giggled. "Lemme tell you a secret. I might be a little drunk." There was a loud throbbing noise in the background of the call, and screaming, as if Rose was at a very loud party.

"Where are you, Rose? I'm coming to get you." He had already put on his shoes and jacket, ignoring the fact that he was wearing his pajamas. "Rose?"

Her voice was a bit hesitant. "I just wanted the keys." She whined. "I lost my car keys, and you have the extra set."

He left the hotel and began to try and flag a cab. "Rose. You are not driving. You're too drunk."

"I'm not drunk." She lied, laughing to herself. "I just want to drive home. You're bringing me the keys."

He decided the easiest way to find her was to play along. "Yes, sweetie, I'm bringing the keys." He spoke to her like she was a child. "Now, you have to tell me where you are, so I can come bring the keys. Okay?" He climbed into the cab, and motioned for the driver to wait a second. "Rose?"

"Greenway." She giggled. "I'm at Greenway. Doctor? Doctor, Doctor, Doctor, Doctor?" She asked in a singsong voice.

"Yes?" The Doctor whisperers to the cabbie, "Greenway," and keeps listening to Rose's drunken rambling. She starts to make less and less sense, until she stops talking. He can only tell that she's still there by the light breathing. They stay like that, silent.

Finally, he talks. "Rose? I'm almost there. Please just come outside." She hangs up. The cab screeches to a halt in front of the bar, which was lit up, and nearly throbbing with the music. He jumped out of the cab, and stood on the sidewalk, desperately searching for her. Just as he's about to phone her back, he sees a small figure sitting at the base of a lamppost. His pulse quickened as he rushed over to find Rose curled up on the dirty pavement. He blond hair was falling out of curls, and she had somehow lost her shoes. The Doctor looked at her for a second, and then knelt down beside her, careful not to step on her fingers.

"Rose? Rose, I'm here. Come on, I'm going to drive you home, okay?" He gently shook her shoulder, hoping she'd wake up enough so he wouldn't have to carry her. No such luck. She made a small noise, like a kitten, but didn't open her eyes.

"Okay, Rose. I'm going to pick you up." He whispered, feeling slightly awkward. She had ignored him for a month, and now he had to carry her, hold her. Standing there with Rose in his arms, he looked around for her car. It wasn't there. _Shit. Where did she park? _He walked around the corner, praying that Rose's little blue car would be sitting there. Go figure. It wasn't. He took Rose's purse off her shoulder, and awkwardly began to look through the contacts, hoping for a familiar name to call. _Jackie. _God, no. _Torchwood. _No. _Himself. _He wouldn't be much help. _Pete. _And, that was it.

The Doctor slammed her phone shut. Only four contacts? What had Rose been doing since he left? With one desperate look down the street again, he realized he had no other choice. He quickly dialed Pete, hoping that he wouldn't need a long explanation as to why he was being called at 2:30 in the morning. Of course, the Doctor was wrong.

"Rose? What is it?"

"It's… the Doctor. I'm using Rose's phone."

"Doctor?" Pete asked in disbelief. "What the hell are you doing? Do you have any idea what time it is?"

The Doctor nodded, before realizing that Pete couldn't see him. "Erm.. yeah. I was just wondering if you could….send a car?" He ended the sentence quicker that he though possible.

"What's wrong?" Pete sounded worried. "Are you okay? Should I call Torchwood?"

"Um…no. It's just… well… Rose is kinda…drunk. And, she called me, but I can't find her car and we would walk home but she's asleep, and she lost her shoes and I don't…"

Pete laughed, effectively cutting off the Doctor's rambling. "Address?"

"I don't know… some place called Greenway?"

"I'm sending a car. And, Doctor? Let's not tell Jackie about this."

"Agreed." The Doctor quickly hung up, and sat on the curb, careful not to bump Rose's head and wake her. But, she woke anyways.

"Doctor? What…?" She still looked asleep, eyes half open.

"Hullo Rose. How much did you have to drink?" He asked, half teasing, half serious. "Cause, you've been completely out of it since I got here…oh…" He checked his watch, "Thirty minutes ago."

"Not that much." She whispered. "Really. I'm just so…tired. And…when I'm tired and tipsy, that is not good." She yawned, and tried to curl up back into the Doctor's arms.

"What do you mean, tired? Aren't you sleeping?"

She looked back up at him, eyes bleary. And, that's when he noticed the black shadows under her eyes, how pale she was. "Nope. I've been getting up earlier, and going to sleep later and later and spending all my time in places like this." She motioned behind them, and managed to hit the Doctor's face in the process.

He made a face at her, and she giggled. "Doctor…" She said, voice catching. "I know we have to…talk. But, please, tonight, I can't do that. Can we pretend tonight, just pretend that everything's okay? I promise…we'll talk."

The Doctor looked down at his Rose, so tired, and god, so lonely. He knew he should say no, he knew they should probably talk, but, he found himself nodding. "Of course, Rose." They sat in silence, Rose drifting in and out of sleep, her head pressed against the Doctor's chest, breathing slow and steady. Time seemed to go impossibly slow, and impossibly fast at the same time. Just his Rose and her Doctor, sitting under the half-light of the empty street.

And, there would be time for explanations and apologies, Rose's sobs, telling about all the times she'd seen him die, and the Doctor's comforting whispers. And time for the Doctor to wake screaming in the night, plagued by nightmares, and see Rose's small frame silhouetted in the doorway, ready to hold him until the demons left. Time for kisses and tears, for the Doctor's hands tracing the scars on Rose's back and for Rose to see the scars left by such a long, long life.

But now. Now was not that time. Now it was time for them to sit in the ethereal early morning light and wait. Wait for the car, and for morning and for a second chance with each other.

The Doctor dropped a light kiss to Rose's head. "I'm not letting you go again." Drowsily, she looked up. "Nope." He leaned down and pressed another kiss to her cheek, and then gently to her lips. "Doctor…." She whispered.

"Yes?" He asked, after she didn't finish. "Rose?" He looked down again. She had drifted back to sleep again. With a small laugh, he leaned back against the lamppost and waited for Pete's car to come.

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**A/N: **Please read and review! I really appreciate it! I planned for this to be a oneshot...but... should I continue it? Answer in a review?


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